Mr. Vincent Harrison:

I thank the Chairman and members for inviting the DAA to attend today's meeting. When the DAA last appeared before the committee on 1 June, we addressed the very challenging events of Sunday, 29 May, which saw 1,400 passengers miss their flights as a result of lengthy queues at Dublin Airport’s security screening areas. While there is no room for complacency, I am pleased to report that seven weeks on, the airport's security screening processes are now on a far more robust and sustainable footing.

At our meeting with the committee in June, the DAA outlined the substantial capacity challenges we faced as we sought to bridge Dublin Airport’s resourcing gap and meet the demands of a rapid spike in air travel across the globe. We also acknowledged a number of key shortcomings with respect to the airport’s operations on 29 May and laid out our plans to address these challenges and restore confidence for our passengers.

As a result of the implementation of these plans, the wait times at the airport’s security screening areas have now improved significantly. During June, Dublin Airport served more than 2.8 million passengers in total, and more than 90% of all passengers were processed through security in 45 minutes or less. During July, we have continued to see exceptional levels of growth at the airport. Over the full month of July, we expect that the airport will serve almost 3.1 million passengers, an average of 100,000 passengers every day. Despite this rapid growth, further improvements to the airport's security performance have been successfully achieved. To date in July, more than 95% of all passengers have been processed through security in under 45 minutes. More than 85% of passengers have queued for 30 minutes or less. Prudent contingency measures have been put in place by both the DAA and the Government to provide safeguards should any external challenges arise. However, these measures have not been required to date given the operational improvements made.

At present, Dublin Airport continues to advise passengers to arrive 2.5 hours in advance for a short-haul flight and 3.5 hours in advance of a long-haul flight. This advice remains prudent in the current circumstances. As outlined, while positive progress has been achieved with respect to security queue times, we are advising passengers that they should continue to allow up to one hour to clear security screening. In addition, they then need to walk to their gate and board their aircraft. The current advice allows sufficient time for this. If a passenger is checking a bag, this requires additional time. As a result, we continue to advise that, where possible, passengers should allow up to one additional hour where they need to do so. We also recommend that they confirm specific opening times for the airline that they are travelling with. Airlines can also communicate directly with their own intending passengers to provide more tailored advice, should they wish to do so. While the early presentation of passengers remains a feature across the industry, we believe this has arisen as a result of general anxiety levels with respect to international travel. This trend is therefore unlikely to abate until the overall narrative regarding air travel becomes more positive.

The airport’s recruitment programme is also continuing at pace. When the DAA last met the committee, we indicated that we intended to bring a further 70 security officers into our business during June, with no upper limits placed on recruitment in the period beyond. In fact, during June we recruited almost 100 new airport security unit officers. During July, we have brought more than 50 further recruits into the business. This means that since October 2021, we have now delivered a total increase of 356 security staff in our terminals, net of exits. Security staffing levels have almost returned to 2019 levels, while recruitment is continuing. Recruiting, retaining and training such a large number of new staff members to the very high standards required is challenging. This will continue to have our full focus over the weeks and months ahead.

Over the past seven weeks, we have also been engaging very closely with all passengers impacted by the events of 29 May. As of this week, more than 75% of all claims received by the DAA have now either been closed out or are at an advanced stage of processing. Additionally, our teams have put significant focus on improving standards for our passengers across all other areas of the airport. This includes the critical area of cleanliness of airport facilities, where we acknowledge standards have suffered. Through significant engagement with both our teams and third parties, we have now materially increased cleaning resources. This has enabled a series of deep cleans at night and other targeted actions across the terminals. Since we last attended the committee, almost 4,000 further task force shifts have been worked by our management and office-based teams, with more than 500 of these focused specifically on cleaning. In addition, we are working closely with third-party food and beverage concessionaires to enhance their focus on cleaning. We are also placing strong focus on services for our passengers with reduced mobility, and we continue to work very closely with our third-party provider with respect to this area. Our aim is to ensure that these passengers have a positive experience and that service standards are maintained despite the significant volume growth.

The airport clearly still has a journey ahead to rebuild trust with our passengers and to restore all aspects of our operations to the standards that we routinely delivered pre-Covid.

However, it has been very encouraging to see our passengers acknowledge the marked improvement in the airport’s operations in recent months. As a result of the steps taken and the plans in place, we are confident that we will maintain a safe and stable operation and deliver improving standards over the days, weeks and months ahead.

I take this opportunity to express our huge gratitude to all members of our team for their outstanding efforts in delivering these improvements. The passion, commitment and resilience they have shown have been simply incredible. They have shouldered huge responsibility to deliver for the travelling public and have taken strong initial steps to restore pride and trust in Dublin Airport. I also thank the travelling public for their patience and understanding during this period. In particular, I thank them for their very many positive messages of support, both directly and through social media, which have been hugely appreciated by our colleagues across the business.

While airport operations have seen considerable improvements over the past seven weeks, a range of other significant challenges have emerged across the wider international aviation network. This has been reflected in the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights to and from Dublin Airport during July to date. Many of these cancellations have taken place as a result of flight caps imposed at other airports or due to capacity constraints experienced by airlines as a result of Covid-19. Passengers have also experienced a range of other impacts, including luggage delays, both in Ireland and abroad. As the challenges in these areas have intensified, I believe there has been a growing understanding among passengers of just how complex the causes of these issues are. There has also been increased awareness of the respective responsibilities and interdependencies that exist within our industry.

As the committee is aware, as an airport operator, DAA has direct responsibility for the airport’s security operations, the airport infrastructure and the overall experience passengers have within our terminals. As outlined, since the challenges of 29 May, significant work has been undertaken to address the difficulties faced in these areas. While challenges remain, I hope our passengers are now seeing the impact of these actions. However, as an airport operator, DAA does not control areas such as airline flight cancellations or the handling of passengers’ baggage. The responsibility for these specific areas sits with the airlines and their ground handling agents. Similar to DAA, they are taking considerable steps to address the challenges they are currently facing in this respect, which I am sure they will outline to the committee in more detail today.

Passengers are becoming increasingly aware of the global nature of the issues currently facing the sector. There are few countries that have not been impacted by the current challenges. From the UK to Europe, the US, Australia and Asia, the issues relating to flight cancellations, delays and passenger baggage are dominating headlines right across the globe. In recent months, airports such Heathrow, Gatwick, Frankfurt and Amsterdam Schiphol have been forced to implement flight caps as a result of severe challenges faced by their passengers. This in turn has impacted on the holiday and travel plans of millions of people. This is a course of action that we have worked extremely hard to avoid at Dublin Airport. Our aim has been to ensure that our passengers make their flights and get to take that long-awaited and much-deserved holiday. Through the implementation of our plans, we have succeeded in avoiding the types of flight caps and cancellations that are now in place at many other European airports.

Looking forward, the industry will remain challenged over the period ahead. All industry players, including airports, airlines and ground handlers, will need to address their own specific challenges in order to restore the high standards that passengers expect of us all. Ultimately, however, every single player within our industry is united by one key factor - the passengers we serve. If any one element of the ecosystem faces difficulties, whether it is the airport, the airlines, the ground handling services or any other player within the supply chain network, the overall passenger experience is impacted. As a result, industry collaboration will be more important than ever as we look to the future. This is something we are totally committed to over the period ahead.

I thank the committee for extending the invitation to today’s meeting to DAA. I look forward to the discussion.